Thursday, January 26, 2012

“Silent” protestors with their mouths taped
shutconfronted Sacramento Mayor
Kevin Johnson and corporate education proponent Michelle Rhee as they entered
acarefully promoted and
controlleddiscussion about
education issues at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I St, in Sacramento
on Wednesday, January 25.

Demonstrators held a news briefing with local media
outlets.The Sacramento Bee did
not cover the demonstration.This
protests occurs as Wall Street corporations and foundations are funding not only
the privatization of education.The protestors set up a ‘gauntlet” of protestors with their mouths taped
shut –something Rhee admitted to doing to her noisy students when she was a
teacher. She later said some of the students were hurt when they removed the
tape.

The “Town Hall” organized by Rhee and Johnson
gained positive press coverage on local news channels.They covered Rhee’s views and the
advocacy group without describing her connections to right wing groups.

Why do many
reporters not report on the realities of the corporate sponsorship ofone group of“school reformers”?

There is a national systemic organized plan for the total priva- tization of public education through the use of multi-billion- aire supported non-profits such as the Gates Foundation, Broad Foundation and the KIPP Foundation to place paid lobbyists into governmental positions on school boards and other government agencies. At the same time, the privatization of the University of California and the CSU system through corporate regents and trustees who are profiting from these public institutions is a growing scandal. This conference will look at how the destruction of public edu- cation is taking place in California, who is doing it and how to stop it and defend the right to a public education for all working people.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Educational historian Diane Ravitch will
make a presentation in Sacramento on Jan. 20, 2012 sponsored by local CTA
affiliates- that is good.The
public needs this conversation and teachers need this support.The Bee story on Jan 12 unfortunately
uses a misleading headline- Testing Critic to address teachers. The issue is
testing and more.And, the public
needs to consider what is happening to their schools- not only teachers.

The
Bee article by Melody Gutierrez is
reasonable, while the general reporting on education in national newspapers,
magazines and television leaves much to be desired.Ravitch’s book and her presentations will offer a
small but important counter story.

Why
do many reporters not report on the realities of school change?

They too often rely upon the wisdom of selected “spokespersons” and other
elites.

They have been sold a
framework ofa corporate view of
accountability. Corporate sponsored networks and think tanks such as the the
Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Broad Foundation,the Bradley Foundation, the Pacific Research Institute,and the Olin Foundation provide
“experts” prepared to give an opinion on short notice to meet a reporters
deadline.Most reporters assume
that these notables are telling the truth when in fact they are promoting a
particular propaganda such as in the film “Waiting for Superman”.Who do they not talk with?They fail to interview experienced
teachers and professionals who have worked for decades to improve the quality
of inner city schools.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Selling Schools Out

By Lee FangPosted on November 17, 2011, Printed on January 9, 2012http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigations/corporateaccountability/1580/

If the national movement to "reform" public education through vouchers, charters and privatization has a laboratory, it is Florida. It was one of the first states to undertake a program of "virtual schools" — charters operated online, with teachers instructing students over the Internet — as well as one of the first to use vouchers to channel taxpayer money to charter schools run by for-profits.

But as recently as last year, the radical change envisioned by school reformers still seemed far off, even there. With some of the movement's cherished ideas on the table, Florida Republicans, once known for championing extreme education laws, seemed to recoil from the fight. SB 2262, a bill to allow the creation of private virtual charters, vastly expanding the Florida Virtual School program, languished and died in committee. Charlie Crist, then the Republican governor, vetoed a bill to eliminate teacher tenure. The move, seen as a political offering to the teachers unions, disheartened privatization reform advocates. At one point, the GOP's budget proposal even suggested a cut for state aid going to virtual school programs

Lamenting this series of defeats, Patricia Levesque, a top adviser to former Governor Jeb Bush, spoke to fellow reformers at a retreat in October 2010. Levesque noted that reform efforts had failed because the opposition had time to organize. Next year, Levesque advised, reformers should "spread" the unions thin "by playing offense" with decoy legislation. Levesque said she planned to sponsor a series of statewide reforms, like allowing taxpayer dollars to go to religious schools by overturning the so-called Blaine Amendment, "even if it doesn't pass…to keep them busy on that front." She also advised paycheck protection, a unionbusting scheme, as well as a state-provided insurance program to encourage teachers to leave the union and a transparency law to force teachers unions to show additional information to the public. Needling the labor unions with all these bills, Levesque said, allows certain charter bills to fly "under the radar."

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